With video marketing in 2018, Instagram is increasingly the go-to social media app for creative and fun viral video content.
Instagram’s short 60-second video limit provides the perfect platform for brands to successfully target growth and interaction in a society of increasingly short attention spans. Add in features such as Instagram stories, Instagram live and more, and the possibilities are huge. All it takes is a handful of ideas to draw inspiration from, so let’s get started!
1. Radiohead
Radiohead have long been at the vanguard of creative ways of packaging and promoting their music. In 2007, they broke with convention by self-releasing their album ‘In Rainbows’ as a pay-what-you-like download. They followed that up by dropping their next album ‘The King of Limbs’ three days after announcing it and without a single. So in April 2016 when they deleted all their previous website and social media activity, you knew something was in the pipeline. A few days later, short video excerpts were posted on their Instagram, which were watched nearly 100,000 times on the day. It was followed by a single and an album release days later, which went to number one in both the UK and US album charts.
2. Deadpool
When film studios create a campaign to promote a new project, the template they usually follow is Marvel’s superhero movie Deadpool. This is in no small part due to a brilliantly smart and innovative viral digital marketing campaign on social media.
Much of Marvel’s promotion centered around introducing Ryan Reynolds’ character Deadpool to a national audience without giving away plot details. They released an April Fools’ Day interview where Deadpool announced that the film would be Rated R which has been viewed over 5.6 million times on YouTube. They produced a video of Deadpool massaging Conan O’Brien, a video of Deadpool explaining what he got up to for Halloween, and a ‘12 Days of Deadpool’ countdown before Christmas, all of which were viewed millions of times. When Deadpool was finally released in early 2016, it shattered box office records, drawing $130 million in its first weekend. Not bad for a film with a budget of $56 million.
3. Starbucks
Starbucks have had a monopoly on the coffee industry in North America for decades,
and their expansion into new regions continues at a pace. As of 2018, they have 27,399 separate stores worldwide and they retain their status with relentless and professional use of social media.
4. Adidas Originals
Even though Adidas is predominantly a sports brand, they’ve had a long-standing connection to hip-hop music and culture. In the 1980s, Run DMC was often pictured in their sneakers and tracksuits, even releasing a song titled ‘My Adidas’.
Last year, Adidas partnered with Snoop Dogg, Stormzy, and Desiigner to promote their Originals lineup in Instagram videos. This marketing campaign was clever for a number of reasons, but most importantly because it served to remind people that Adidas is a huge part of hip-hop culture.
5. KFC/WWE Southpaw Wrestling Campaign
WWE is a massive global entertainment product, as their 24.7 million YouTube subscribers attest to. To put that number in context, they have the 17th most subscribers of any YouTube channel, ahead of the Ellen Show amongst others.
In 2017, a short mockumentary series titled Southpaw Wrestling aired. Starring many of WWE’s top wrestlers playing characters in a small-time territory in the 1980s, it was widely lauded by fans and gained a cult following. In actual fact, it was a cleverly designed video marketing campaign by KFC in conjunction with the WWE. Every episode featured ‘commercials’ for the fast food chain narrated by wrestling legend Ric Flair and the show spawned a second and third season. It’s a prime example of how two major brands can collaborate on content to advertise in a fun and engaging manner.
6. Tastemade
Inspired by the Japanese cooking concept of ‘kawaii’, Tastemade set out to cook food one-twelfth of its normal size. Originally a pre-recorded video series, it eventually showcased just how popular Facebook’s live video feature could be as a video marketing tool.
In one video broadcast live on Facebook, a chef chopped up, prepared, and cooked a miniature burger inside a dollhouse. Hundreds of thousands tuned in, and the video has since been viewed 3.8 million times.
Tastemade’s Facebook page has grown from 200,000 to 28 million likes in the past five years, illustrating how innovative video content can push a brand forward.
If you’d like to take your video marketing to the next level, ReviewStudio provides a simple and effective online proofing platform for your business to best do so. Try it today!
